Stories of Ourselves: "On Her Knees" by Tim Winton

A mother and son argue about the nature of dignity as they clean a house together.

Here are links to our lists for the short stories in Stories of Ourselves:
The Hollow of the Three Hills, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Signalman, The Happy Prince, The Yellow Wall Paper, The Son’s Veto, The Open Boat, The Moving Finger, The Door in the Wall, Sredni Vashtar, How It Happened, Her First Ball, The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection, The Fly in the Ointment, The Custody of the Pumpkin, An Englishman’s Home, The Phoenix, There Will Come Soft Rains, The Prison, The Destructors, Meteor, Billenium, The Lemon Orchard, The People Before, The Enemy, Five-Twenty, A Horse and Two Goats, Report on the Threatened City, The Rain Horse, Ming’s Biggest Prey, The Village Saint, Secrets, The Stoat, Games at Twilight, The Taste of Watermelon, Journey (Patricia Grace), The Bath, My Greatest Ambition, To Da-duh, in Memoriam, Of White Hairs and Cricket, Elephant, Sandpiper, Journey (Shirley Geok-Lin Um), The Third and Final Continent, Tyres, At Hiruharama, Real Time, On Her Knees, The Contest
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. recess
    an enclosure that is set back or indented
    The only thing worse than knowing she knelt every day in someone else’s grotty shower recess was having to help her do it.
  2. stickler
    someone who insists on something
    After the old man bolted she became a stickler for order.
  3. discreet
    marked by prudence or modesty and wise self-restraint
    She was discreet and deadly honest, and those lofty standards, that very rigidity, set her apart.
  4. lofty
    having or displaying great dignity or nobility
    She was discreet and deadly honest, and those lofty standards, that very rigidity, set her apart.
  5. benchmark
    a standard by which something can be measured or judged
    She earned a reputation in the riverside suburbs where, in time, she became the domestic benchmark.
  6. invariably
    without change, in every case
    The householders who thought most highly of themselves were invariably the worst payers and the biggest slobs.
  7. extort
    obtain by coercion or intimidation
    It was as though having someone pick up after them had either encouraged them to be careless or made them increasingly determined to extort more work for their money.
  8. ludicrous
    inviting ridicule
    It was unfair, ludicrous, impossible, and while she packed the Corolla in the driveway I told her so.
  9. chassis
    the skeleton of a motor vehicle
    She knew before I did, and not even the chassis-bending slam I gave the door could wipe the look of vindication from her face as she reversed us out into the street.
  10. vindication
    the justification for some act or belief
    She knew before I did, and not even the chassis-bending slam I gave the door could wipe the look of vindication from her face as she reversed us out into the street.
  11. composure
    steadiness of mind under stress
    Her mask of composure belied a fear of driving, and the caution with which she navigated made me crazy, but I resolved to show a bit of grace.
  12. belie
    be in contradiction with
    Her mask of composure belied a fear of driving, and the caution with which she navigated made me crazy, but I resolved to show a bit of grace.
  13. sullen
    showing a brooding ill humor
    Nothing, I said, trying not to sound sullen.
  14. scrupulous
    having ethical or moral principles
    She was more scrupulous, more honest, than any of them.
  15. demeaning
    causing someone to lose status or the respect of others
    It’s demeaning, Mum!
  16. tart
    harsh
    Well, excuse me, constable! she said with a tart laugh.
  17. posh
    elegant and fashionable
    Even after three years at the university, whose lawns all but ran to the river’s grassy banks, that constant, brothy presence stank of old money, of posh schools and yacht clubs.
  18. mauve
    of a pale to moderate grayish violet color
    I heard an envelope torn open and I came in as she held up the mauve paper, one hand on her heart.
  19. brusque
    rudely abrupt or blunt in speech or manner
    After years of faultless service there was no discussion, just the accusation and the brusque termination in three scrawled lines.
  20. trough
    a long narrow shallow receptacle
    I went into the airless laundry where the litter tray lay beneath the steel trough.
  21. warble
    sing by changing register; sing by yodeling
    She stopped warbling as if conscious of my presence.
  22. livid
    discolored by coagulation of blood beneath the skin
    She was bent over the tub, Ajax in hand, veins livid in her legs.
  23. grim
    filled with melancholy and despondency
    We’d had a grim few years, Mum and I, but you wouldn’t walk into our place and feel the same melancholy you picked up here.
  24. tranquil
    not agitated
    Another person might have found it tranquil, but to me it felt as stale as it smelled.
  25. intimate
    marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
    You’d have to imagine they were some kind of sleepwalker, that they were blind, incurious, too stupid to notice intimate things about your life.
  26. blase
    nonchalantly unconcerned
    That’s what it takes to be blasé about strangers in your house – a kind of annihilating self-assurance.
  27. bristle
    have or be thickly covered with or as if with stiff fibers
    I found biographies of Paul Robeson, Leadbelly, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, each of them bristling with tabs of paper and pencilled notes.
  28. forbearing
    showing patience and self-control in difficult circumstances
    The comments in red biro were good-natured and forbearing.
  29. avert
    turn away or aside
    At one point, when the old girl glanced up from the kitchen floor, I averted my eyes.
  30. flounce
    a strip of pleated material used as a decoration or a trim
    Mum came in while I was on my knees still vacuuming the flounces and folds of the patchwork quilt.
Created on Thu Mar 08 11:24:30 EST 2018 (updated Fri Mar 23 15:42:45 EDT 2018)

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